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Although only sophomores at St. Mary’s Academy, Dallas Jessup and Catherine Wehage, are used to being featured in national magazines and numerous television news and talk shows throughout the country for their work to create their novel film, Just Yell Fire. But it is with great pride that the girls have received an award from their local area: the Community Youth Inspiration Award for Clark County. In November, Clark County Youth House Visionary team awarded Jessup and Wehage as their youth honorees for the month and will recognize them at their Second Annual Community Inspiration Awards Banquet on Monday, December 18, 2006 at the Water Resource Education Center, 4600 SE Columbia Way, Vancouver, Washington.
When freshmen in 2005, Jessup and Wehage quickly learned that the all-girls preparatory school had lofty expectations of its students, including a clear call to service. Considering this call to service, personal experience, dangerous societal trends, and individual contacts, the young women decided to create a video for other girls (aged 11-19) about how to escape predators and date rape situations. Titled Just Yell Fire, the film has morphed into a major film with a professional director and crew, including Evangeline Lilly and Josh Holloway from the television show Lost.
The Just Yell Fire website has had over 850,000 hits and has had more than 45,000 individuals download copies of the film. In addition, the girls have distributed over 5,500 copies of the DVD to interested parties. The film has been promoted in national news mediums including In Touch Magazine and Teen Magazine. Talks are under way with Cosmo Girl and Good. Stories also have been aired on all Portland television stations, in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Colorado Springs.
Founded in 1859 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, St. Mary’s Academy of Portland, is Oregon’s oldest continuously operating secondary school and one of 716 all-female schools in the country. The student body represents a diverse background of young women from over 30 urban, suburban, and rural communities in Oregon and Southwest Washington. St. Mary’s Academy is distinguished by its development of the whole person, and is the only school in the state to receive three U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Schools awards.
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